There has been much talk about PLCs in recent years and schools in various parts of Wales, and indeed across the world, have adopted this strategy to drive school improvement and to develop teachers’ skills. But what does an effective PLC look like? What are the common features that should be present in a successful Professional Learning Community?
The answers to the above questions are actually what you would expect to see in any initiative aimed at improving standards and teachers’ confidence. Research shows that CPD needs to be Continuous, the C in Continuous Professional Development, in order to be effective and impact positively on teachers’ skills and whole school improvement. A take away approach to CPD does not conduce to sustained improvement in teachers’ practice and often what’s been learnt at CPD events can be easily taken over by other “priorities” and the busy schedule all teachers have.
An ideal framework
Establishing a good PLC offers an ideal framework towards that sustained improvement that teachers need. This is because it is driven by practitioners and it is an ongoing process, not just a one off event to tick a box. But this coin comes with two faces, as on one side you have the continuity of teachers’ professional development and on the other side there must be allocation of resources. The most important of these is time and that has to be facilitated by Senior Leaders in the school. Giving teachers time to develop PLCs also means more funds allocated to these activities. That is key to the successful development of effective learning partnerships within a school and between schools.
I have made some personal notes on Effective PLCs in Mind Map form and I thought you would find them useful too. Much of what’s in the notes refers to Wales and the implementation of the Literacy and Numeracy Framework, so if you are a teacher in Wales, you’ll find the Mind Map particularly useful and if you are outside Wales, there are still many features that will help you establish effective PLCs in your school.
The Learning Wales website has some excellent resources on PLCs and these notes actually come from a session led by Emma Wilson (DfES).
If you want to download this mind map as an iMindMap file go to this Biggerplate page.
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